2011年4月27日 星期三

Kanō Tan'yū(狩野 探幽?, 4 March 1602 - 4 November 1674) was one of the foremost Japanese painters of the Kanō school. His original given name was Morinobu; he was the eldest son of Kanō Takanobu and grandson of Kanō Eitoku. Many of the most famous and widely known Kanō works today are by Tan'yū.

Kano Tanyu's sketches: focusing on birds, animals and figures

2011/04/28

This is a part of the Birds and Flowers of the Four Seasons Screen.

Editor's Note: The following articles are translations of reviews carried by the latest issue ( No. 1386) of Kokka, a prestigious art magazine published in Japan. The publication, which specializes in old Japanese and Oriental art, was founded in 1889 by Tenshin Okakura, a well-known Japanese art critic and philosopher (1862-1913), among others. It is held in high esteem by researchers and experts aboard.

Plate 1 (color) Swan

by Kano Tanyu

Hanging scroll, color on paper

H. 56.5cm, W. 130.0cm

Hatakeyama Memorial Museum, Tokyo

By Hiroko Kato

What are we to be made of the sketches by Kano Tanyu (1602-1674)?

Tanyu's sketches and finished paintings have up to now been handled separately. Though Tanyu is heralded as a pioneer in sketching from life, because of the importance of his rank as a painter in service to the shogunate, he was criticized for not being able to display his pre-modern sensibilities in public or use his sketches in his main works. However, a clarifying full study based on the art work as to the reasons for the differences in the works has yet to be conducted.

Regardless of the fact that in the Edo period the terms shasei and shashin were used interchangeably, they have in the past been discussed separately based on genre differences between animal paintings and people portraits. This article discusses them together. Bird and flower paintings, for example, could be called "portraits of birds and animals," and it can be noted that he made shashin life-size sketches of birds and animals, with notations about the depictions (form and color information) on the works to indicate the individual features of each model. Thus, even in cases where corresponding sketches are not extant today, he did create finished works on the basis of related sketches and thus transferred important painting data from the sketch to the finished work.

In terms of the shashin of human figures that were created as sketches for portraits, judging from the records of the production process, it can be said that unlike present-day sketches Tanyu made "sketches from memory" after having fully observed his subject. Even if he did create works based on direct sketches, as indicated by the term shashin, the final goal was shin or idealized truth. This applies not only to human portraits, but also to animal paintings which are "portraits of bird and animals." Therefore we can argue that by necessity this led to a difference between the motifs in sketches and finished paintings. Further, in portraits the sitter's social rank and virtue were symbolized by costume and accompanying items, while with images of birds and animals in paintings importance is conveyed by the depiction of the fur or feathers covering the subject's body. The subject is separated visually by the emphasis on color and pattern rather than form. We can discern the underlying worldview of the artist from this tendency of vision and depiction to discern and depict difference. This is a world view that sees a union of subject and object, that confirms that all living beings are the manifestation of God's design, one that differs greatly from the post-Renaissance naturalism and the objective view established by the realism of the 19th century. If that is the case, then naturally there are divisions between the sketching form nature established in the Renaissance drawing study and the application of methods that collate the motifs in the finished picture.

The shin or truth that was Tanyu's goal was based on traditional forms and depictive methods, and on grasping immediately that which was not readily apparent, bringing in new reproductive depiction with iconographic information that was based on a subtle balance between those traditional factors and life sketching. If we recognize that the gap between sketches and finished bird and flower paintings seen in Tanyu, Ogata Korin and Watanabe Shiko was quite considerable by the time we reach Maruyama Okyo, then we can interpret this not as a reflection of the artist's social standing, but rather the change in the shin sought by the artist in each period. In the future, should we re-evaluate an artist or an art work based on whether or not a sketch motif was directly linked to a finished work and the degree to which it was reflected in that work, or rather should we clarify the change in the nature of the shin sought by the period and the artist?

The author is an art historian (Japanese painting) and research assistant at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts.

* * *

Plates 2 and 3 (color)

Birds and Flowers of the Four Seasons Screens

by Ito Jakuchu

Pair of six-panel screens, ink on paper

Four paintings on outer edges:

Each H. 134.8cm, W. 48.4cm

Other eight paintings:

Each H. 134.8cm, W. 51.1cm

By Hideyuki Okada

The mid-Edo period Kyoto-based painter Ito Jakuchu (1716-1800) painted this pair of six-panel screens with attached paintings. Working from the right end of the right screen, the paintings depict plum blossoms, peonies and butterflies, rooster and bamboos, bird and pine tree, mynah bird and willow tree, bird and lilies. Working from the right of the left screen, the images are chrysanthemums, tororo-aoi hibiscus, hawk and oak tree, bird and banana plant, Mandarin duck and reeds, and narcissus. Thus, these paintings clearly present from right to left a seasonal progression of spring, summer, autumn and winter birds and flowers.

These twelve paintings each have two different seals impressed upon them, for a total of 24 different seals. Of those, newly recognized seals on the works can be seen in the "To-Keiwa-shi" seal on the 5th panel of the right screen (5th painting), "Azana-iwaku-Keiwa" seal (7th painting), "To-shi-Keiwa" (10th painting) and "Nitto-To-Jokin (11th painting). The first panel on the right screen and the 6th panel on the left screen are inscribed with the date "Horeki 9" (1759), and thus we know that Jakuchu painted these works during the spring of his 44th year. That extremely productive year also saw the creation of five hanging scrolls from the Colorful Realm of Living Beings series and fifty fusuma sliding door panels for the Main Shoin of Rokuonji (Kinkakuji). This painting with its known production date is particularly important in the consideration of the development of Jakuchu's ink painting style.

The author is an art historian (Japanese painting) and curator of MIHO MUSEUM.

* * *

Plate 4 (color) Seated Image of Shoku

Wood

Fig. H. 88.6cm

Founders Hall, Engyoji, Hyogo Prefecture

By Yoshiteru Kawase

This wooden sculpture is said to be the image of Priest Shoku (1007). Shoku was a Tendai priest of the mid-Heian period, traditionally said to have founded Engyoji on Mt. Shosha in Hyogo prefecture in 966. This seated image is slightly bigger than life-size with a figure height of 88.6cm, with a head that is sharply pointed in the back. The eyes are downcast and the protruding eyebrows combine with the hands tucked into his sleeves in front of his waist to form a unique figural form.

According to production records, a fire occurred in the temple's Founders Memorial Hall in the 8th month of 1286, and this reduced the image created after Shoku's death to ashes. In 1288 the temple commissioned the Buddhist sculptor Keikai to created a new image based on a painted portrait. A glass jar containing Shoku's ashes had been found in the old sculpture, and records show that this same jar was placed inside the new sculpture.

This work was carved from kaya wood (torreya nucifera) and its style is generally faithful in an exaggerated expression, with naturally expressed drapery. Recent study of the image included an X-ray examination which revealed a globe-shaped, glass vessel, thought to contain bones and ash, inside the head, confirming the record about the transfer of the Shoku's remains.

In recent years, a portrait sculpture of a priest was discovered at the temple, greatly damaged overall but luckily with the carved surface of the head, torso and back area remaining in good condition. The carving and style appear to be from the end of the 10th century through the beginning of the 11th century, suggesting that this work dates almost back to the days of Shoku himself. It is possible that this figure was the very image damaged in the 1286 fire.

The author is an art historian (Japanese sculpture) and an investigator of the Fine Arts Division in the Agency for Cultural Affairs.

* * *

Research Material

The Self-Portrait of Matsudaira Sadanobu

Plate 5 (color)

Self-Portrait of Matsudaira Sadanobu

Hanging scroll, color on silk

H. 108.0cm, W. 110.0cm

Chinkokushukoku Shrine, Mie Prefecture

By Yasunao Kawanobe

Matsudaira Sadanobu (1759-1829) was a chief shogunal councilor and clan lord of the Shirakawa clan during the late Edo period. Born in Horeki 8・1758), he was the son of Tayasu Munetake, from one of the three Tokugawa families, and a descendant of the 8th Tokugawa shogun Yoshimune.

Today there are several images of Matsudaira Sadanobu known. The most famous example is the portrait in the Chinkokushukoku Shrine in Kuwana, Mie Prefecture, which is a self-portrait painted when he was 30 years of age. This image is said to have been used as a substitute for Sadanobu when he was absent from the Shirakawa clan lands.

In addition to this image there are several other images known which depict Sadanobu after his retirement and assumption of the artistic name Rakuo. The work in the collection of the Fukushima Prefectural Museum of Art is particularly well known. That image is also said to be a self-portrait. Another painting that closely resembles the Fukushima Museum image is today in Shogenji in Kuwana. The Shogenji work is stored in a box whose lid interior is inscribed in ink with the story of how the work was created. According to this box inscription, there was a self-portrait by Sadanobu of his own features, to which the oku-eshi painter to the shogunal family Kano Osanobu (1796-1846) jadded the body and garment sections. The portraits of Matsudaira Sadanobu are particularly fascinating materials in our understanding of the relationship between pre-modern clan lord portraits, self-portraiture and the work of shogunal oku-eshi painters.

The author is an art historian (Japanese painting) and curator of Fukushima Prefectural Museum

2011年4月19日 星期二

Becker, Decorative Arts from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance

Treasures of the Middle Ages and Renaissance

Eight centuries of European applied arts

When Kunstwerke und Geräthschaften des Mittelalters und der Renaissance (1852–1863) was published, what purchasers in fact bought was a small printed museum of unusual treasures. With 216 hand-colored copperplate engravings, the publication gives a comprehensive overview of applied arts in Europe from the 9th to the 16th centuries. The objects presented comprise furniture, metalwork, jewelry, tapestries, and works of bookbinding. Carefully selected masterpieces such as the gilt Corvinus goblet, an enamelled saltcellar, and medieval ivory combs are depicted, along with a decorative sword, now lost.

The editor Jakob Heinrich von Hefner-Alteneck (1811-1903) was head of the Royal Cabinet of Prints and Drawings in Munich and later director of the Bavarian National Museum. His work helped influence the creation of new museums of art and design – the South Kensington Museum in London (today the Victoria and Albert Museum), founded in 1852, being the very first – in which artists could study the hand-crafted masterpieces of earlier epochs.Although the co-editor Carl Becker (1794-1859) commissioned various artists to make drawings of the historical originals for Kunstwerke und Geräthschaften, the signatures on the plates show that most of the illustrations stem from the hand of artist Jakob Heinrich von Hefner-Alteneck and he can therefore be considered as the work’s main draughtsman; considering that Becker died before the completion of the work, the most influential figure behind it was undoubtedly Hefner-Alteneck. Before his collaboration with Becker, Hefner-Alteneck had previously published Trachten des christlichen Mittelalters (Costumes of the Christian Middle Ages).

With their publication, Jakob Heinrich von Hefner-Alteneck and Carl Becker gave expression to the 19th century’s revived interest in the art of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. By selecting masterpieces from public and private collections, and reproducing them faithfully in pictures, they created a document of artistic quality in itself, which also provides evidence of works which have since been lost.

With this new edition, which includes a commentary, TASCHEN is making an important publication accessible once more, giving a glimpse of the treasure chambers of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. This complete reprint was created on the basis of an original copy in the Württembergische Landesbibliothek in Stuttgart.

The author:Carsten-Peter Warncke studied art history, classical archaeology, and literature in Vienna, Heidelberg, and Hamburg, and received his doctorate from the latter in 1975. He is professor of art history at the University of Göttingen.

Italian archaeologists are to search for a long-lost tomb which may contain the remains of the woman who inspired the Mona Lisa.

A team of researchers announced on Tuesday that they will carry out excavations beneath a convent in Florence, believed to be the burial place of Lisa Gherardini.

She was the wife of a rich Florentine silk merchant and is believed by most scholars to have been the model for Leonardo da Vinci’s famously enigmatic portrait.

The archaeologists' ultimate aim is to find enough skull fragments to be able to reconstruct her face, enabling a direct comparison to be made with the Mona Lisa.

It could solve a mystery which has intrigued art historians for centuries – the identity of the subject of the world's best known painting, which hangs in the Louvre Museum in Paris.

In addition to the suggestion that the Mona Lisa was based on Gherardini, it has also been proposed that the painting was inspired by Florentine noblewomen, courtesans, street prostitutes, the artist's gay lover and even da Vinci himself.

Related Articles

The team will be led by Silvano Vinceti, an art historian who last year announced that he had found the remains of the Renaissance genius Caravaggio, although his claim was disputed by other scholars.

Digging will take place beneath the former Convent of St Ursula in central Florence, where Gherardini is believed to have died in her sixties in 1542.

The team will use ground-penetration radar to search for forgotten tombs inside the building.

If they discover human remains, they will sift through the bones to identify any that are compatible with a woman of Gherardini's age.

They then plan to conduct carbon dating and extract DNA, which will be compared to that extracted from the bones of Gherardini's children, some of whom are buried in a basilica in Florence.

But there is doubt over the project before it has even started.

Giuseppe Pallanti, an authority on da Vinci, claimed last year that Gherardini's remains were most likely dug up 30 years ago, when work was carried out to convert the former convent into a police barracks, and dumped in a municipal rubbish site on the edge of Florence.

The work was carried out long before the discovery of Gherardini's death certificate, which suggested that she was buried in the convent.

History

Milan's layout, with streets either radiating from the Duomo or circling it, reveals that the Duomo occupies what was the most central site in Roman Mediolanum, that of the public basilica facing the forum. Saint Ambrose's 'New Basilica' was built on this site at the beginning of the 5th century, with an adjoining basilica added in 836. When a fire damaged both buildings in 1075, they were later rebuilt as the Duomo[2]

The beginning

In 1386, Archbishop Antonio da Saluzzo began construction in a rayonnant Late Gothic style more typically French than Italian. Construction coincided with the accession to power in Milan of the archbishop's cousin Gian Galeazzo Visconti, and was meant as a reward to the noble and working classes, who had suffered under his tyrannical Visconti predecessor Barnabò. Before actual work began, three main buildings were demolished: the palace of the Archbishop, the Ordinari Palace and the Baptistry of St. Stephen at the Spring, while the old church of Sta. Maria Maggiore was exploited as a stone quarry. Enthusiasm for the immense new building soon spread among the population, and the shrewd Gian Galeazzo, together with his cousin the archbishop, collected large donations for the work-in-progress. The construction program was strictly regulated under the "Fabbrica del Duomo", which had 300 employees led by first chief engineer Simone da Orsenigo. Galeazzo gave the Fabbrica exclusive use of the marble from the Candoglia quarry and exempted it from taxes.

In 1389, a French chief engineer, Nicolas de Bonaventure, was appointed, adding to the church its strong Gothic imprint. Ten years later another French architect, Jean Mignot, was called from Paris to judge and improve upon the work done, as the masons needed new technical aid to lift stones to an unprecedented height. Mignot declared all the work done up till then as in pericolo di ruina ("peril of ruin"), as it had been done sine scienzia ("without science"). In the following years Mignot's forecasts proved untrue, but anyway they spurred Galeazzo's engineers to improve their instruments and techniques. Work proceeded quickly, and at the death of Gian Galeazzo in 1402, almost half the cathedral was complete. Construction, however, stalled almost totally until 1480, due to lack of money and ideas: the most notable works of this period were the tombs of Marco Carelli and Pope Martin V (1424) and the windows of the apse (1470s), of which those extant portray St. John the Evangelist, by Cristoforo de' Mottis, and Saint Eligius and San John of Damascus, both by Niccolò da Varallo. In 1452, under Francesco Sforza, the nave and the aisles were completed up to the sixth bay.

In 1500 to 1510, under Ludovico Sforza, the octagonal cupola was completed, and decorated in the interior with four series of 15 statues each, portraying saints, prophets, sibyls and other characters of the Bible. The exterior long remained without any decoration, except for the Guglietto dell'Amadeo ("Amadeo's Little Spire"), constructed 1507-1510. This is a Renaissance masterwork which nevertheless harmonized well with the general Gothic appearance of the church.

The famous "Madonnina" atop the main spire of the cathedral, a baroque gilded bronze statue

During the subsequent Spanish domination, the new church proved usable, even though the interior remained largely unfinished, and some bays of the nave and the transepts were still missing. In 1552 Giacomo Antegnati was commissioned to build a large organ for the north side of the choir, and Giuseppe Meda provided four of the sixteen pales which were to decorate the altar area (the program was completed by Federico Borromeo). In 1562, Marco d' Lopez's St. Bartholomew and the famous Trivulzio candelabrum (12th century) were added.

Charles Borromeo

After the accession of the ambitious Carlo Borromeo to the archbishop's throne, all lay monuments were removed from the Duomo. These included the tombs of Giovanni, Barnabò and Filippo Maria Visconti, Francesco I and his wife Bianca, Galeazzo Maria and Lodovico Sforza, which were brought to unknown destinations. However, Borromeo's main intervention was the appointment, in 1571, of Pellegrino Pellegrini as chief engineer— a contentious move, since to appoint Pellegrino, who was not a lay brother of the duomo, required a revision of the Fabbrica's statutes.

Borromeo and Pellegrini strove for a new, Renaissance appearance for the cathedral, that would emphasise its Roman / Italian nature, and subdue the Gothic style, which was now seen as foreign. As the façade still was largely incomplete, Pellegrini designed a "Roman" style one, with columns, obelisks and a large tympanum. When Pellegrini's design was revealed, a competition for the design of the facade was announced, and this elicited nearly a dozen entries, including one by Antonio Barca [3]

This design was never carried out, but the interior decoration continued: in 1575-1585 the presbytery was rebuilt, while new altars and the baptistry were added in the nave.

In 1577 Borromeo finally consecrated the whole edifice as a new church, distinct from the old Santa Maria Maggiore and Santa Tecla (which had been unified in 1549 after heavy disputes).

17th century

The cathedral as it appeared in 1745.

At the beginning of the 17th century Federico Borromeo had the foundations of the new façade laid by Francesco Maria Richini and Fabio Mangone. Work continued until 1638 with the construction of five portals and two middle windows. In 1649, however, the new chief architect Carlo Buzzi introduced a striking revolution: the façade was to revert to original Gothic style, including the already finished details within big Gothic pilasters and two giant belfries. Other designs were provided by, among others, Filippo Juvarra (1733) and Luigi Vanvitelli (1745), but all remained unapplied. In 1682 the façade of Santa Maria Maggiore was demolished and the cathedral's roof covering completed.

In 1762 one of the main features of the cathedral, the Madonnina's spire, was erected at the dizzying height of 108.5 m. The spire was designed by Francesco Croce and sports at the top a famous polychrome Madonnina statue, designed by Giuseppe Perego that befits the original stature of the cathedral.[4] Given Milan's notoriously damp and foggy climate, the Milanese consider it a fair-weather day when the Madonnina is visible from a distance, as it is so often covered by mist.

Completion

The Cathedral in 1856.

On May 20, 1805, Napoleon Bonaparte, about to be crowned King of Italy, ordered the façade to be finished. In his enthusiasm, he assured that all expenses would fall to the French treasurer, who would reimburse the Fabbrica for the real estate it had to sell. Even though this reimbursement was never paid, it still meant that finally, within only seven years, the Cathedral had its façade completed. The new architect, Francesco Soave, largely followed Buzzi's project, adding some neo-Gothic details to the upper windows. As a form of thanksgiving, a statue of Napoleon was placed at the top of one of the spires. Napoleon was crowned King of Italy at the Duomo.

In the following years, most of the missing arches and spires were constructed. The statues on the southern wall were also finished, while in 1829-1858, new stained glass windows replaced the old ones, though with less aesthetically significant results. The last details of the cathedral were finished only in the 20th century: the last gate was inaugurated on January 6, 1965. This date is considered the very end of a process which had proceeded for generations, although even now, some uncarved blocks remain to be completed as statues. The Duomo's main facade went under renovation from 2003 to early 2009: as of February 2009, it has been completely uncovered, showing again the colours of the Candoglia marble.

Architecture and art

The plan consists of a nave with four side-aisles, crossed by a transept and then followed by choir and apse. The height of the nave is about 45 meters, the highest Gothic vaults of a complete church (less than the 48 meters of Beauvais Cathedral, which was never completed).

The roof is open to tourists (for a fee), which allows many a close-up view of some spectacular sculpture that would otherwise be unappreciated. The roof of the cathedral is renowned for the forest of openwork pinnacles and spires, set upon delicate flying buttresses.

The cathedral's five broad naves, divided by 40 pillars, are reflected in the hierarchic openings of the facade. Even the transepts have aisles. The nave columns are 24.5 metres (80 ft) high, and the apsidal windows are 20.7 x 8.5 metres (68 x 28 feet). The huge building is of brick construction, faced with marble from the quarries which Gian Galeazzo Visconti donated in perpetuity to the cathedral chapter. Its maintenance and repairs are very complicated.

Aesthetic Judgments

The cathedral was built over several hundred years in a number of contrasting styles and the quality of the workmanship varies markedly. Reactions to it have ranged from admiration to disfavour. The Guida d’Italia: Milano 1998 (Touring Club Editore, p.154) points out that the early Romantics tended to praise it in “the first intense enthusiasms for Gothic.” As the Gothic Revival brought in a purer taste, condemnation was often equally intense.

John Ruskin commented acidly that the cathedral steals "from every style in the world: and every style spoiled. The cathedral is a mixture of Perpendicular with Flamboyant, the latter being peculiarly barbarous and angular, owing to its being engrafted, not on a pure, but a very early penetrative Gothic … The rest of the architecture among which this curious Flamboyant is set is a Perpendicular with horizontal bars across: and with the most detestable crocketing, utterly vile. Not a ray of invention in a single form… Finally the statues all over are of the worst possible common stonemasons’ yard species, and look pinned on for show. The only redeeming character about the whole being the frequent use of the sharp gable … which gives lightness, and the crowding of the spiry pinnacles into the sky.” (Notebooks[M.6L]). The plastered ceiling painted to imitate elaborate tracery carved in stone particularly aroused his contempt as a “gross degradation”.[5]

While appreciating the force of Ruskin’s criticisms, Henry James was more appreciative: “A structure not supremely interesting, not logical, not … commandingly beautiful, but grandly curious and superbly rich. … If it had no other distinction it would still have that of impressive, immeasurable achievement … a supreme embodiment of vigorous effort.”[6]

Main monuments and sights

The interior of the cathedral includes numerous monuments and artworks. These include:

The Archbishop Alberto da Intimiano's sarcophagus, which is overlooked by a Crucifix in copper laminae (a replica).

In front of the former mausoleum is the most renowned work of art of the cathedral, the St. Bartholomew statue by Marco D'Agrate.

The presbytery is a late Renaissance masterpiece composing a choir, a Temple by Pellegrini, two pulpits with giant atlantes covered in copper and bronze, and two large organs. Around the choir the two sacristies' portals, some frescoes and a fifteenth-century statue of Martin V by Jacopino da Tradate) can be seen.

The transepts house the Trivulzio Candelabrum, which is in two pieces. The base (attributed to Nicolas of Verdun, 12th century), characterized by a fantastic ensemble of vines, vegetables and imaginary animals; and the stem, of the mid-16th century.

In the left aisle, the Arcimboldi monument by Alessi and Romanesque figures depicting the Apostles in red marble and the neo-Classic baptistry by Pellegrini.

A small red light bulb in the dome above the apse marks the spot where one of the nails reputedly from the Crucifixion of Christ has been placed.

In November-December, in the days surrounding the birthdate of Saint Charles Borromeo, a series of large canvases, the Quadroni are exhibited along the nave.

The 5-manual, 225-rank pipe-organ, built jointly by the Tamburini and Mascioni Italian organbuilding firms on Mussolini's command, is currently the largest organ in all of Italy

In literature

The American writer and journalist Mark Twain visited Milan in the summer of 1867. He dedicated chapter 18 of Innocents Abroad to the Milan Cathedral, including many physical and historical details, and a now uncommon visit to the roof. He describes the Duomo as follows:

What a wonder it is! So grand, so solemn, so vast! And yet so delicate, so airy, so graceful! A very world of solid weight, and yet it seems ...a delusion of frostwork that might vanish with a breath!... The central one of its five great doors is bordered with a bas-relief of birds and fruits and beasts and insects, which have been so ingeniously carved out of the marble that they seem like living creatures-- and the figures are so numerous and the design so complex, that one might study it a week without exhausting its interest...everywhere that a niche or a perch can be found about the enormous building, from summit to base, there is a marble statue, and every statue is a study in itself...Away above, on the lofty roof, rank on rank of carved and fretted spires spring high in the air, and through their rich tracery one sees the sky beyond. ... (Up on) the roof...springing from its broad marble flagstones, were the long files of spires, looking very tall close at hand, but diminishing in the distance...We could see, now, that the statue on the top of each was the size of a large man, though they all looked like dolls from the street... They say that the Cathedral of Milan is second only to St. Peter's at Rome. I cannot understand how it can be second to anything made by human hands.

Oscar Wilde visited Milan in June 1875. In a letter to his mother he wrote: "The Cathedral is an awful failure. Outside the design is monstrous and inartistic. The over-elaborated details stuck high up where no one can see them; everything is vile in it; it is, however, imposing and gigantic as a failure, through its great size and elaborate execution."

In Italian Hours Henry James describes “a certain exhibition that I privately enjoyed of the relics of St. Charles Borromeus. This holy man lies at his eternal rest in a small but gorgeous sepulchral chapel … and for the modest sum of five francs you may have his shrivelled mortality unveiled and gaze at it with whatever reserves occur to you. The Catholic Church never renounces a chance of the sublime for fear of a chance of the ridiculous--especially when the chance of the sublime may be the very excellent chance of five francs. The performance in question, of which the good San Carlo paid in the first instance the cost, was impressive certainly, but as a monstrous matter or a grim comedy may still be. The little sacristan, having secured his audience, … lighted a couple of extra candles and proceeded to remove from above the altar, by means of a crank, a sort of sliding shutter, just as you may see a shop-boy do of a morning at his master's window. In this case too a large sheet of plate-glass was uncovered, and to form an idea of the étalage you must imagine that a jeweller, for reasons of his own, has struck an unnatural partnership with an undertaker. The black mummified corpse of the saint is stretched out in a glass coffin, clad in his mouldering canonicals, mitred, crosiered and gloved, glittering with votive jewels. It is an extraordinary mixture of death and life; the desiccated clay, the ashen rags, the hideous little black mask and skull, and the living, glowing, twinkling splendour of diamonds, emeralds and sapphires. The collection is really fine, and many great historic names are attached to the different offerings. Whatever may be the better opinion as to the future of the Church, I can't help thinking she will make a figure in the world so long as she retains this great fund of precious "properties," this prodigious capital decoratively invested and scintillating throughout Christendom at effectively-scattered points.”

Many Milanese dialect speakers, due to the centuries needed to complete the Duomo, use the "Fabbrica del Duomo" ("Fabrica del Dom" in the dialect) as an adjective (sometimes humorously, sometimes not) to describe an extremely long, too complex task, maybe even impossible to complete.[1]

The Italian phrase "mangiare a ufo", stemming from the Milanese dialect mangià a uf meaning "being paid for a job not done", comes from the fact that the goods used to build the Duomo wore the inscription "A.U.F.", shorthand for Latin "Ad Usum Fabricae" (to be used for the construction) and were exempt from taxation.

A souvenir model of the cathedral was thrown at the nose of Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi during an attack on December 13, 2009. [7]

In the song "In Every Age" from the musical Titanic. Comparing the building with the Pyramids of Egypt and the Titanic as one of the greatest feats of architecture.

See also

References

^Duomo is a generic term in Italian meaning "Cathedral", which technically refers to a church which is the official seat of an archbishop. It is derived from domus, a Latin term for "home" or "house", referring to the role of the church as home of God.